The year 2014 has been a horrific year for children with up to 15 million sucked in wars in the Central African Republic, Iraq, South Sudan, the Palestine, Syria and Ukraine- the UN children’s agency stated.
“It was in this very year that children have been killed while studying in the classroom and while sleeping in their beds; they have been kidnapped, recruited, orphaned, tortured, raped
and even sold as slaves. This has been a devastating year for millions of children. Never in recent times have so many children been subjected to such unspeakable brutality,” stated UNICEF director Anthony Lake.
Across the whole world, at least 230 million children currently reside in nations and areas usurped by terrible conflicts, according to UNICEF. The wars in Syria and Iraq, have left children in the clutches of increasingly brutal and extreme violence, the agency said. Many more have fallen prey to natural disasters and diseases, too.
The worst pandemic outbreak of Ebola has left thousands of children orphaned while some 5 million are out of school in the three almost crushed-up countries: Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia
2.7 million in Iraq and 7.3 million children are affected by the war in Syria. In Gaza, 54,000 children remain homeless from the war between Israel and Palestine that ended in August. Of the more than 2,000 death toll, 538 were innocent children.
South Sudan armed forces and groups recruited around 12,000 child soldiers this year, according to UNICEF. Around 10,000 kids have been procured by armed groups in the Central African Republic over the past year and more than 430 children have been murdered – thrice the number of last year’s count.
The same South Sudan, which has been in a year-long war, has more than 0.2 million under five children who suffer from severe acute malnutrition, whereas 0.75 million have been lost their homes and more than 0.3 million live as refugees.
“The sheer number of crises in 2014 meant that most were easily left behind or captured little attention,”
UNICEF quoted after gauging the ongoing violence in Democratic Republic of Congo, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen and Nigeria.
by Aafreen N.K.
MGM Medical College
2014 turned out to be detrimental for children
